Third Sunday of Lent

How can I forget what items I have in my wardrobe, when I only have forty??

Looking at my clothes last night to decide what to wear this morning (it's not being organised - it's giving myself five minutes more in bed in the morning) I came across my long brown top.  It's one of my staple items, I wear it all the time, yet not only did I forget it was in my forty items, I didn't even miss it!

Am beginning to wonder if I have too many clothes…

Oh, we've started putting our sermons online at St Margaret's, today was my first recording.

day fifteen

During the war, people needed to use not only their hard earned money to buy clothes, but also their clothing coupons.  A typical allowance was 48 coupons a year.  

Given that the outfit I am wearing today (brown jumper, jeans, and all the relevant underwear - you don't need to know the details) would use up 14 coupons, and a coat and shoes would use up another 10, I think I would have had to develop my needlework skills pretty quickly!

day fourteen

so what does domestic abuse have to do with clothes?  Not much, I would have thought.  But then I was watching a short, and very touching, dvd at work today, aimed at children who have lived with domestic abuse.  Mikey and Jools (in the picture) watch their mum being humiliated because she wears a dress that their dad does not approve of.

We don't thing about how clothes are used to control women in our society - we probably assume that is something that happens in other cultures.  But it happens in our culture too.  For some women, as in the dvd, it is very immediate.  For others, forced to wear certain clothes or make up at work, it is more subtle.

I can choose to restrict my wardrobe to only forty items.  But no-one else should be able to restrict my wardrobe to keep me in my place.

day twelve

"Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes."  

So said Vivienne Westwood last year at London Fashion Week.  

To be fair, my sort of buying - that is, charity shop buying - is different from Vivienne's.  I enjoy making 'a find' - clothes that prompt people to ask me where I bought them, so I can reply 'British Heart Foundation, a fiver' with a smug look on my face.  

For me, then, perhaps the most useful comment is 'choose well'.  I amaze myself how often I come home with something that I quite like, or fits not too bad.  I wear it once or twice, then it just sits in my wardrobe until my next clear out.  Really, I should only buy clothes that look great, that I love, that I'm sure I'm going to wear.

And if I had fewer clothes, I would have more room for books...

This green top and black jeans, for work today, are both recent purchases, both of which I love!

day eleven

From the sublime to the ridiculous today...  I spend the day at uni talking theology (stripy top, denim skirt, with my red coat and black gym shoes).

Then off in the evening to see Miranda Hart at the Hydro - such fun!  She told us to be more three to six year old, wise advice I think.  I wore my last new clothing purchase before Lent - it's a coat which looks vintage (but the label has been cut out so I think it is probably River Island) but old or new, makes me feel fabulous.  Ain't that what a good coat is for?!

Second Sunday of Lent

Just been away for the weekend.  After visiting my brother and his girls, and my pal and her girls...

... I met up with my girls - friends from university.  We met over 25 years ago, and we get together for a weekend every year - this year we were back in Edinburgh, and had a wonderful time wandering around town,

visiting our old haunts,

stopping for tea and cakes,

(and of course celebrating Ireland's nail biting victory in the Six Nations!!)

My weekend wardrobe was all selected from my forty items - slight disaster when I left my boots at my brother's, but fortunately he noticed them so I picked them up before I headed back to Glasgow, phew.

day seven

I thought I was doing well cutting down to forty items, but a friend has beaten me.  She was travelling for 2 months, through 3 different temperature zones, with only one suitcase - much respect!

Just packed to go away for three nights (packed about half of my forty items I think).  Will blog what I wear if I can work out how to do so from my phone...

Working today, so I was wearing my grey dress, one of my best pick ups at a clothes swap.